Fewer letters and higher costs are once again forcing PostNL to increase stamp prices

The announcement of the new stamp price followed the presentation of PostNL’s disappointing quarterly figures on Monday morning. In the first three months of this year, the company suffered a net loss of 17 million euros. This is mainly due to the troubled postal division of the former state-owned company: it shrank by 12 percent compared to last year.

The number of mail items sent has been declining for years. As a result of digitalization, invoices, congratulations, expressions of support and declarations of love are increasingly sent via e-mail and WhatsApp or included in direct messages. There is no need for a postman anymore. In the meantime, the Postal Act of 2009 prescribes that the meager letters that are still sent must be delivered the next day.

An untenable situation, says PostNL. Because it means that postal workers have to visit all streets five days a week and then pass most houses silently. This leads to high personnel costs, which have also become slightly higher due to the 19 percent step-by-step wage increase that the delivery drivers managed to command. To reduce costs, PostNL would prefer to only visit three or two days a week.

Not for the first time, and certainly not for the last, the postal monopolist argued for an amendment to the Postal Act on Monday. No longer should 95 percent of letters be delivered within one day, but within two to three days. Only urgent mail items such as funeral cards could then be delivered the next day at an increased rate.

During an explanation of the annual figures, CEO Herna Verhagen stated that this amendment to the law does not require waiting for a new cabinet. The House of Representatives declared the subject non-controversial, which means that the outgoing cabinet can make a decision on this. Minister Adriaansens of Economic Affairs previously showed himself not insensitive to PostNL’s call. According to her, ‘security, affordability and quality’ should be central for the Dutch consumer.

It is of course food for thought if this happens with poorer services at higher prices. However, according to PostNL it is clear that the current system does not work in any case. This is also evident from the multi-million fines the company received from the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets, because it has not been able to sufficiently fulfill the legal obligation of delivery within one day since 2019. Last year, one in five letters did not arrive on time.

PostNL did promise improvement in service for next year on Monday. Partly thanks to higher wages, the company hired more postal workers. The number of vacancies fell from a thousand to three hundred.

Chinese online stores

There was also another bright spot during the presentation of the quarterly figures: the parcel division is slowly climbing again. After the number of delivered packages fell by 0.2 percent last year as a result of the purchasing power crisis, PostNL recorded another increase of 4.6 percent in the first three months of this year. Remarkably, this growth is mainly taking place at foreign web shops, for example PostNL concluded contracts with various Chinese web shops to deliver their products.

In that context, during the press conference on Monday, attention was also paid to the lawsuit against PostNL in Belgium. The Belgian branch of the former state-owned company heard in the Antwerp court on Thursday demanding a fine of 45 million euros for alleged abuses lower down in the parcel delivery chain, including undeclared work and forgery. PostNL stated that it would not take into account additional costs as a result of the lawsuit. “We have already argued in court that we believe we are operating within the framework of the law.”